Technology and R&D

A new report looking at the building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glass market predicts that its market value will rise by at least 400 percent over the next five years. It also highlights the firms to watch and explains why Suntech could transform the market.

Australian scientists are working on a research project to network solar arrays across many roofs and households, into a “virtual power station”. The project hopes to improve the “predictability, quality and response” of power being put back into the local power grid.

A collaborative research project, based in the Australian state of Victoria, claims to have developed the world’s most efficient broadband nanoplasmonic solar cells. The result, published in the journal Nano Letters, report the cells having an efficiency of 8.1 per cent.

A new research project at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), is aiming to get photovoltaics applied in brave new ways and many more places. The project, at the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Low-Carbon Living at UNSW, will focus on a range of techniques, applications and potential impediments relating to photovoltaic technology.

New research from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. is developing a method by which more of sun’s spectrum can be harnessed by a photovoltaic cell. In theory, the hybrid semiconductor method could push through the theoretical efficiency barrier limiting silicon solar cells.

The PV Legal project has found that while positive progress has been made in reducing bureaucratic barriers to photovoltaic implementation, there are still many in place, which continue to hinder development. Grid connection was highlighted as the biggest bottleneck.

Germany’s Federal Environment Minister, Norbert Röttgen, has confirmed his attendance at the first “Energy Storage – Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energies” conference, scheduled to be held in Düsseldorf this March. During the event, he will address the issue of energy storage transformation.

A report looking into the commercial viability of transparent electronics provides a very positive assessment of its opportunities within the solar industry, including predictions of in excess of 1,000 percent growth in some areas. It additionally identifies the key players to watch.

Lux Research has found that the copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar market is likely to double between now and 2015. However, it warns that only a few manufacturers will succeed.

Scientists from Germany and the U.S. use a sunflower pattern to enhance concentrated solar efficiency. The RWTH Aachen University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) create a heliostat array that is more compact.